'I favour a gradual rise in bank rate which would be aimed to avoid destabilising confidence through a sudden lurch in policy,' Sentance told a business audience in Reading, hours after official figures showed inflation fell from 3.4% in May to 3.2% in June, as had been expected.

While that remains well above the Bank's 2% target, most MPC members expect inflation to subside quickly from now on, and fear that raising rates now would kill off the economic recovery.

'Tightening,' said Sentance today, 'may be technically correct as the opposite of "loosening" but it implies that monetary policy might become objectively tight and restrain the growth of the economy significantly. Again, that is not my view about the policy stance we currently need.'

One factor feeding into a recent spike in inflation was a weak pound, Sentance said, and there was reason to believe that ultra loose monetary policy and the expectation that rates would remain at a record low of 0.5% for some time had contributed to that.

Sentance said the downside risks to the economy and inflation that had forced the BoE to drastically loosen policy had been avoided.

'A year ago, the predominant worry was that inflation could be significantly depressed by the impact of the recession. That risk did not materialise,' he said. 'And while I'm not yet worried that we face a major and serious risk in the opposite direction, I do think we need to adjust the policy settings we put in place.'